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How Hireable Are You?

This is a re-post from my blog on a resource for evaluating your job readiness. I made a few edits, and I’ve added a “general” spreadsheet for any type of IS work (or any job, really). When thinking about classes, internships, and volunteering to develop your skill set, I’ve found having a concrete way of tracking your development against what information institutions are looking for is really helpful.

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An academic librarian visited one of my classes last quarter, and she talked about the hiring process in the California State University system. The CSU uses points and rankings in hiring their librarians, which many public libraries do as well.

This got me thinking about what I would look like on paper in a point system, so I whipped up these spreadsheets. The first is geared towards public youth librarians; the second is only the categories, to fill in with whatever skills you notice in your own profession’s job postings.

The left hand side is a list of job skills/qualifications, broken down by required/desired. If I had a skill in “desired” but it came up as a “required” in another job posting, I moved it to “required” to be as prepared as possible. Across the top is a variety of categories, including whether I have this skill or not, and if so, how; what courses and experiences have been relevant; what I would rank myself in accordance to other 2010/2011 grads and public librarians that have been working for up to three years (Librarian I), and ways to further develop that skill. On my personal spreadsheet, I included a list of links to library job posting sites in the regions I’m most interested in, as well as a list of the youth/children’s librarian positions I drew the job skills from, where they’re located, and the pay/benefits of each, to track geographic differences in job skills. I find it useful to have one access point for my job resources when checking in to the job market.

I’ve been filling mine in and altering it as I add more experiences, and using it to evaluate weak spots to think about in terms of what classes to take, and making the most of internships and assignments. Feel free to take these spreadsheets and use them however you’d like! I’ve also included a link to competencies as defined by professional associations to consider when planning career development.

@Lauren: This is kind of funny, but you know how when you learn a new word, and then suddenly you hear it everywhere? I was scared of my own gaps, too, especially with this job market, but with knowing my weaknesses, suddenly, opportunities were everywhere! I don’t know if it’s because I was talking about it more, or just keyed in, but resources and projects came up like daisies.